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Infinite Horizon
Infinite Horizon (subtitled as Shattering the Endless Sky in English and Crushing the Endless Sky in Japanese) is an action RPG developed by Pyro Enterprises and co-developed by Monolith Soft. Taking inspiration from a wide range of titles, most notably Xenoblade Chronicles, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Kingdom Hearts, and Chrono Trigger, Infinite Horizon has been described by its creator as their "ideal RPG", crafting together and retooling various concepts in the genre they had conceptualized over the years. Story Chapter 1: Unknowns The game begins in some sort of dark void, seemingly someone's dreamscape. A white silhouette of a young woman appears in the fetal position, with what are presumably her inner thoughts being broadcast to the player. My father once said that every person has a soulmate, someone they were fated to encounter and spend their lives with. No matter who they were or how they did it, everyone would come across their soulmate given enough time. After he passed, I've been alone practically my whole life. I haven't had the guts or bravery to put myself out there or talk to anyone... But even if his daughter turned out a wreck, I still believe his words. Somewhere out there, beyond the infinite horizon, is someone who I know needs me right this second... Or maybe I need them more. A loud thump is heard as the dreamscape shakes violently, jostling the woman and snapping her back to reality with a small yelp. The speaker is introduced as Lyra, who rubs her head after bonking it on the wall of the small room she seems to be sleeping in. As a voice yells for everyone to wake up for morning rounds, Lyra yawns and changes out of her sleepwear, exiting the room to reveal her surroundings; a small oasis in a vast desert surrounded by small red plants, circled by a ring of mechanical carriages which people were now emerging from and carrying packages out of. The Alystrian sun, permanently hovering overhead, sent blistering heat down over the caravan as Lyra went to make the mechanical checkups she was tasked with overseeing. The player is tasked with exploring the Vanash Caravan in order to become acquainted with the various NPCs in the group, as well as picking up some introductory sidequests and learning about basic functionality of the game. Along the way, Lyra is shown repairing various odds and ends throughout the caravan, fixing engine problems in some of the mechanical vehicles and setting up tents for the rest of the group. Though people thank her for her assistance, she seems distant and barely acknowledges them. Eventually, Lyra is asked to head out on a short excursion and find some sunstone for fuel; she agrees, and the player is given their first taste of the open world as they look for sunstone. Eventually, Lyra comes across a small deposit, pulling a pickaxe-like implement out to mine it, but she is surprised by a lizard-like creature which emerges from the sand, snarling at her. She quickly backs off, aiming her weapon at the beast tentatively, but she is surprised by rapid-fire shots of energy blasting the lizard from behind her. Looking behind her, she sees a muscular man in white garments blasting away at it with a pair of small guns, sliding down the sand in order to reach her. Introduced as Mikhail, the man encourages Lyra to stand her ground, leading into the combat tutorial. After defeating the lizard, Lyra collapses to the ground, in the midst of what seems to be a panic attack. Mikhail puts his hand behind her back, giving her support as he helps her collect the small pieces of sunstone and return to the caravan. Upon their arrival, Lyra heads back into her room, curling up in order to collect herself. Mikhail enters the room, sitting down and trying to talk with her in order to try to make her feel calmer; in the process, he reiterates the importance of trying to stay relaxed to avoid triggering anxiety, bringing up past trauma concerning her parents' deaths in an accident and telling her that moving on from it will make her feel much better. Lyra nods and says she will try to do better before curling up again, asking Mikhail to leave her alone for now. He agrees, exiting the room. Lyra eventually gets up, being given time to explore the caravan's camp at nighttime and enjoy the group's festivities. After some time, the group all head off to bed, awaiting the coming of day so they can move out. However, in the dead of night, a strange shadowy figure with glowing eyes sneaks around the caravan's vehicles, examining the technology with a strange handheld light and ripping off a piece before scurrying away. ---- The caravan continues on its set path the next morning, Lyra looking out the window of her vehicle and watching the sand blow by in the wind. Suddenly, she hears a large crash, and leaps out of the vehicle as everyone pulls to the side; one of the engines had burst on the leader's vehicle, and everyone was currently pulled over in order to investigate. Lyra and Mikhail were tasked with heading towards the nearby town of Seastone in order to find replacement parts, and the pair headed off to retrieve the supplies they needed. In a bizarre twist of events, the pair finds Seastone largely deserted, with barely any sign of life aside from some small animals scuttling about. The wind howling through the town's empty corridors, Lyra pushes onward, growing concerned about the townspeople; after some time searching, they determine the town is completely deserted, save a few monsters that seem to be raiding the food remaining in the abandoned homes. Eventually, Mikhail tells Lyra that they need to return to the caravan, snatching some spare parts off of the counter of an empty store and dropping some ji in order to pay for it. Lyra refuses to leave, expressing her belief that something sinister is going on, and asks Mikhail to follow her through the town's back alleys in order to search for more people. Reluctantly, the doctor agrees, and the pair pull out their weapons just in case they were called for. The two soon find their way towards what seems to be an underground maintenance hatch, which echoes as if something below is moving around. Lyra pries the hatch open with her bowcaster, and she jumps down into the monster-infested tunnels with Mikhail in tow. Following the sound, she soon comes across a horrific sight- a small side room with blood splattered on the walls, with a strange figure in silver armor siphoning it into what looked like a red glowing crystal. The mechanic audibly gasped, alerting the mystery figure to her presence; they turned around, pulling out a metal dagger and revealing the eerie bird-like mask obscuring their face. Knowing they were in a battle for their lives, Lyra and Mikhail saw no choice but to subdue this unknown individual. The cloaked person is eventually disarmed and forced to the ground, with Lyra taking their mask off in order to ask them where exactly everyone had gone. She only managed to catch a glimpse of their face- incredibly pale, with glowing red eyes- before their skin started glowing orange in patches. To everyone's horror, exposure to the light trickling through the grate in the ceiling seemed to be burning this man's flesh, and though Lyra shouted for Mikhail to do something, it wasn't long before they burst out of the room, face smoking as the blood-red crystal he was holding dropped to the ground. Lyra picked it up before running through the rest of the maintenance tunnels, yelling to track them down and ask who they were; unfortunately, all they encountered as a pile of smoldering robes at the end of a tunnel, the last remains of the murderer they had encountered. Shocked and horrified by the exchange, Lyra and Mikhail decided they needed to return to the caravan to explain everything. As they left the tunnels, however, another shadowy figure emerged behind them, eagerly watching the two leave. Lyra recounted the events that had transpired to the rest of the people in the caravan, with Mikhail backing them up. Though people seemed to believe her in regards to the fact that someone had seemingly slain the entire town, they brushed off the supernatural elements as hallucinations brought on by Lyra's stress, claiming the rogue had simply slipped out of their cloak in order to lose the pair. As the caravan leader put in a call to the local police force, Lyra stepped away from the group, once again feeling hurt inside after being called paranoid and neurotic for what she knew was the truth. Excusing herself, she started walking towards a nearby sand dune in order to get some alone time; Mikhail offered to tag along and help her out, but she brushed his hand aside and kept walking. Sitting alone as the sun was obscured by the moon, darkness falling over the land, Lyra wondered if she'd ever be able to overcome the emotional issues that had plagued her for so long... or if anybody would miss her if she were to up and disappear. Suddenly, she heard a faint humming that seemed to be coming in every direction around her, though close examination showed that nothing was nearby. Knowing something seemed to be off, Lyra was startled by what seemed to be icy cold hands wringing around her neck, not responding to any of her frantic attempts to pry them off. Unable to let out so much as a scream, she felt herself be pulled backwards as her vision was enveloped in total, pitch-black darkness. Gameplay Infinite Horizon is an open-world game in which players are able to traverse across lush, fantastical environments and are encouraged to explore as much as possible, both for the rewards provided and the self-satisfaction of finding unique locales. Though the player only begins with the ability to run and jump around, more exploration options open up as party members are obtained, and the ways they become able to interact with the world expand. All party members are also able to attack on the overworld by pressing , both for the purposes of solving puzzles and striking enemies, and all combo attacks the player has unlocked are accessible at any time. Combat Combat in Infinite Horizon is a hybrid of third-person shooter and traditional action-RPG inspired by the gameplay of Kid Icarus: Uprising, relying on a focus on ranged attacks, bullet hell elements, and evasive actions alongside more standard RPG menu elements. During combat, a reticle appears on screen, indicating where the player's attacks will aim when they fire with the trigger button; holding down the fire button enables rapid-fire attacks, while waiting for a set amount of time enables the use of a charged attack. The player is able to move independently from their camera direction, and flicking the stick enables a quick dodge maneuver. Repeatedly dodging drains the player's Stamina, shown in a green bar under their Health. Entering combat opens up the Tech Menu, which displays a listing of all of the player's Techs. Techs are more advanced special moves that consume TP, a resource gained by striking an enemy with your basic attacks. At any time, the player is able to press to open the Tech Menu, pausing time and enabling them to select a Tech to use. Combat also opens up access to each party member's Character Action, a unique command or sub-menu that varies in purpose between party members. This can be used by pressing . After certain Techs are learned by each party member and their Affinity reaches specific levels, a pair of party members becomes able to perform a Dual Tech. The player is able to request a Dual Tech with one of their two party members by pressing one of the trigger buttons, corresponding to the two CPU party members; if a character's TP bar is yellow, that signifies an ability to perform a Dual Tech, while a blue bar indicates that they do not have enough TP to join in. Though this drains TP from both characters, Dual Techs are often more powerful than standard Techs; both still have their uses, however. In later portions of the game, the party unlocks the ability to perform Triple Techs with all three party members; these are activated via both triggers, and is indicated by the whole party utilizing red TP bars. Affinity Affinity is a core mechanic for the entire party, which is raised when performing Dual Techs, reviving an ally, sleeping together at an Inn, or performing certain actions at a Campfire. Each party member has an Affinity connection to all others, which deduces how well they perform in combat and their capability to perform Dual Techs together, as well as unlocking passive skills that trigger when the characters in question are used in the party. Though performing these actions will build up to a boost in Affinity, the player must locate and view a cutscene referred to as a Heartfelt Chat to truly raise the stat's level. Materials and Forging Infinite Horizon does not sell weapons or armor in shops like in traditional RPGs. Instead, the process is streamlined and made more customizable via the Sunstone Forge, an item which is unlocked early in the story. By gathering metal-based materials in the world, the player is able to craft any weapon or armor piece they wish at any time, granted they know the recipe and possess enough of the required materials. While players are simply able to follow the recipe to the letter, they are also capable of improving the items's base stats by adding more of certain materials to the Forge than required. These improved items are denoted with a +''' next to their name, with the exact stats varying based off of what materials were used. During the Forging process, the player can also embed rare '''Aether Gems into the items they craft. Each Aether Gem is associated with a different element, and embedding them in a weapon can either unlock various elemental Techs or simply cause the weapon's attacks to take on that element; similarly, embedding them in armor can either unlock similar Techs or grant resistance, nullification, or absorption of the corresponding element. Like all items, weapons and armor can be scrapped in order to break it down into its base components. Instead of being converted into ji, they are broken down into the materials used to craft them, though extended periods of use will cause diminishing returns and the more common materials will not come back in as plentiful a supply. Rare materials will always be preserved when scrapping a weapon. Characters Map } |} Category:Pyro Enterprizes Category:Onyx Games Category:Original Games Category:Games Category:Role-Playing Games Category:Action Role-Playing Games Category:Third Person Shooter Games Category:Shooter Games